Lake Village, Arkansas, 71653

Lake Village is near one of the biggest Mississippi River oxbow lakes I’ve ever seen. Several oxbows snake around in that part of Arkansas and Mississippi, giving an idea of how the big river goes where flood waters send it.

Go a few miles west, and you will see a much smaller river that winds and serpentines at least as much as the Mississippi.

Here is a satellite picture:

http://www.bing.com/mapspreview?&ty=17&q=Arkansas%2071653&vdpid=-37999904242&mb=33.511528~-91.480171~33.213657~-91.057602&ppois=33.3560447692871_-91.2747802734375_Arkansas%2071653_~&cp=33.356045~-91.27478&v=2&sV=1&qpvt=zip+code+71653&FORM=MIRE

Lake Village is in Chicot County, at the farthest southeast edge of Arkansas. The population in 2010 was 2,575. Population in 1980 was 3,310. Racial makeup is 56 percent black and 41 percent white, with the remaining 3 percent Native American, Asian-American or Hispanic.

For every 100 women, there are 80 men. For every 100 women age 18 and over, there are 71 men. Thirty percent of families and 36 percent of the total population are below the federal poverty line, including 50 percent of those under 18 and 25 percent of those 65 and older.

Agriculture income is from soybeans, cotton, wheat and catfish.

Confederate Brig. Gen. D.H. Reynolds was a resident of Lake Village. He also was a classmate of future fellow Confederate Brig. Gen. Otho F. Strahl at Ohio Wesleyan in Delaware, Ohio.

The city site says: “Nestled on the banks of beautiful Lake Chicot, the largest natural oxbow lake on the North American Continent, Lake Village is a natural for the outdoor enthusiast or the amateur historian. Life in Lake Village, for both the young and the ‘young at heart’, epitomizes the hometown hospitality of Southeast Arkansas and the Delta.”

http://cityoflakevillage.com/